Aunt Sura was divorced. She was married with a Jew from Bulgaria who, for reasons unknown to me, left her and vanished.
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Displaying 45601 - 45630 of 50826 results
Leizer Finchelstein
My mother had 2 other sisters and 3 brothers. The brothers left to England at a certain point, to Manchester, I don’t remember their names, nor what they did there for a living. From what I heard tell in the family, they didn’t leave together at the same time, first one, then the other followed him.
He spoke Yiddish at home, but he knew Romanian as well.
On many occasions, they accepted that my grandmother accompany him as well because my grandfather ate only kosher food. My grandmother cooked kosher food for him there so that he wouldn’t have to eat food that wasn’t kosher, but he wouldn’t even eat food that wasn’t kosher. The grandfather from my mother’s side wore a beard. That’s all I remember, we were still little and so many years have passed since then. I remember how we, the children, used to pull his beard when he called on us.
The name of the grandfather from my mother’s side was Sloim Vaserman, I believe he was born in Iasi and was a stove fitter. Formerly, all people had wood stoves in their homes, and he was a great specialist in those corner, bricklaid stoves. People built very beautiful stoves in those days. Erecting that system for the evacuation of the smoke was a science in itself. Some landlords would come to pick him up from home by dogcart.
There was chaos after the war, especially in Iasi which had been under Russian occupation. You couldn’t even find bread, it was a period of famine, bread was being sold on a ration book system, it was a sort of bread made from a mixture of potatoes and corn. That was until a little harvest started being gathered and all the destroyed cities started being rebuilt.
We also worked for CFR at that time, but since they didn’t have their own workshops, we worked at home. CFR was in great need of employees, all train stations had been destroyed. No train station had escaped intact. Everything made from wood had been destroyed or stolen from train stations, and it was used as firewood during the war. The trains didn’t run, the train stations were deserted.
As I have already said, right after I returned home from the concentration camp, I worked as a carpenter for various employers until my father rebuilt his old workshop and we started working together. That was until 1947 when a decision was instated that all private workshops had to be closed down and the collectivization began [15].
She worked as a dressmaker her entire life.
Romania
Just like her sister Beti, my wife attended the Alexandru Lambrior school, too. It was a Romanian school for girls. Perhaps my wife would have attended high school and even a faculty if all the Jews hadn’t been kicked out of Romanian schools.
Romania
My wife lost her father during the pogrom. She doesn’t know where he is buried either.
Eli Faierstein was my wife’s youngest brother. He was born in 1928. Their father died when Eli was 12, he had various jobs here in Romania, then he left to Israel at 16.
Romania
Beti Faierstein was born in 1926, she graduated high school and a few years at the university, after which she worked as a draughtsman for CFR until her retirement.
Her brother, Puiu Faierstein, was born in 1923; he worked as a clerk in a store, then as a driver until his retirement.
Romania
Her eldest sister’s name was Sifra Faierstein and she was born in 1921. She attended the Commercial High School, then she went to the Faculty of Law. She worked in Bucharest in the field of journalism.
Romania
My wife’s family observed the Jewish customs and traditions. They weren’t very religious, in the sense that none of them wore sideburns or a straml [Yiddish: a special fur hat worn on the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays, especially by the Hasidim], but they observed all holidays, attended the synagogue on Saturday and on holidays, they observed the kashrut.
My wife often talks about her parents. Her parents met around 1913, probably in Sculeni [Ed. note: Village in the county of Iasi located on the right riverbank of the river Prut, on the border with the Republic of Moldova, 31 km north-east of Iasi]. Immediately afterwards, the war broke out and her father served on the front for about 6 years. When Bucharest was occupied by the German army, king Ferdinand [14] and the government took refuge in Iasi. My wife’s mother was from Sculeni and she went [to Iasi] to visit a neighbor in those days. The neighbor told her: ‘Do you want to see the king? Here, pull that small curtain to the side and inside you will see the king.’ Her mother was very curious, she pulled the curtain and saw the king. She asked that neighbor if she could ask for something from the king. Her neighbor told her to give it a try, but that she should talk quietly and respectfully. Then she asked the king in a Romanian with a countryside accent because, as she lived in the countryside, she spoke with a peasant’s accent, if she could go to the front to see her husband, meaning my wife’s father. The king approved of it, and her mother got on the train and left. It seems that they met somewhere on the front, but it was only 6 years later, around 1919-1920, when the peace was signed and her father returned from the front, that they got married.
We met for the first time in our Jewish neighborhood, I fell in love with her and to this age, after 56 years of marriage, I’m still in love with her. When I come home and ring the doorbell, and she opens the door for me, it’s as if a spotlight lights up the entire house.
Romania
We started in life from scratch. My wife didn’t have a dowry chest. We worked in order to secure a minimum of comfort, and we did this without anyone’s help. And I can say that I was educated in such a way so as to always look for a peaceful life together. In 56 years of marriage, I didn’t raise my voice to my wife or had a fight with her. It’s incredible, but it is true.
I got married in 1949. It was a vey beautiful wedding, despite its being pretty simple, it was a traditional Jewish wedding, with hipe-kidise [Yiddish: the nuptial canopy]. The wedding party was organized in the courtyard of the house where my wife’s sister lived, on Sfantul Teodor St., it was the month of August. Our mothers prepared the table. Not many people were invited, it was a family-only party, without music and fuss. We also have a chisibe [Yiddish: marriage certificate, Hebrew: ketubbah] that we keep to this day. In those days all weddings that were organized observed these customs. Before the wedding, the bride performed the ritual bath. Only then could you start living your life as a couple.
Sometimes, if I was doing well money-wise, I would go for a stroll with my girlfriend, we would enter a confectionery to eat a cake. There were no bars or discos in those days. I didn’t have time for other hobbies.
My brothers managed to leave. Many Jews left by illegally crossing the border through Hungary. I accompanied my brother Lica [Leon Finchelstein] all the way to Oradea, but I couldn’t leave with him. I was very fond of my parents, so I told my brother: ‘Look here, Lica, I’m returning home, Godspeed and, if I can, I will join you together with our parents.’ I returned to Iasi where I started working.
It isn’t my intention at present to pass criticism on these organizations and those who ran these Zionist organizations, but the fact was that they represented various orientations, those who ran them quarreled with one another, and we, the ordinary members, couldn’t understand why they were arguing. Our wish was to emigrate, we didn’t know the meaning of right-wing party or labor party. We were educated in the spirit that when we arrived in Israel we had to completely change the Jewish mentality regarding work.
Immediately after the war, around 1945, I entered a Zionist organization, Borohovia, which was an organization for the working class. [Ed. note: Borohovia, Zionist organization for the working class initiated by Ber Borochov (1881-1917), one of the founders of Socialist Zionism. His theories became the ideological basis of the left-wing movement Poale Zion]. I was a halut [Hebrew: pioneer] and I entered the ahsara training [Hebrew: training for emigrating to Israel with the help of Zionist organizations] in some kibbutzim in Falticeni, Targu Neamt, Botosani, Piatra Neamt and Galati. It aimed at helping youth get used to the work ahead of us once we left to Israel. It was in these kibbutzim that they chose the youth who were going to do the aliyah. There were other activities apart from work, such as learning Ivrit. It was also at that time that I met my future wife. We were supposed to marry on the kibbutz and leave together. Things evolved in such a way that we didn’t leave anymore. They rewrote the lists of those who were supposed to emigrate and we weren’t on them anymore. I was a member of this Zionist organization until 1947 when these organizations ceased to exist. The Securitate [13] came and asked us to leave those kibbutzim. We left home then with only a blanket and a bed-sheet.
When we returned home, we found the city completely evacuated. There were no state authorities left in the city, no city hall, no police or fire department. Almost all of the Christian population working in these institutions was evacuated. I could say that right after August 23, the city of Iasi was to a very large extent a Jewish city. Later on, the Christian population returned. As for the Jews, they started emigrating [12]. 400,000 Jews left Romania.
I attended primary school at Vasile Adamache, it was a Romanian school. I don’t know why I wasn’t enlisted at a Jewish school. I think the custom for Jewish parents to send their children to Jewish schools wasn’t very well-spread before the 1930-1935’s. It was only when the anti-Jewish laws [3] were passed that parents had no choice anymore, and Jewish children were allowed to attend classes only at Jewish schools. I am indebted to father who sent all of us, children, to attend primary school. Back then, these four grades weren’t mandatory. It was fortunate that father, realizing he had no studies whatsoever, wanted that at least his children should graduate these 4 primary grades.
I will never forget the words of our teacher after we graduated the 4 primary grades. He told us at the graduation celebration: ‘Well, children, mind that you don’t forget how to read. During these 4 years I have strived to teach you how to read, write, and the 4 essential rules of arithmetics: subtraction, multiplication, addition, and division.’ He thus guided and advised us to read whatever we could get our hands on. He knew from personal experience that most children entered apprenticeships into various trades after the 4 primary grades and didn’t have time to read anymore.
I will never forget the words of our teacher after we graduated the 4 primary grades. He told us at the graduation celebration: ‘Well, children, mind that you don’t forget how to read. During these 4 years I have strived to teach you how to read, write, and the 4 essential rules of arithmetics: subtraction, multiplication, addition, and division.’ He thus guided and advised us to read whatever we could get our hands on. He knew from personal experience that most children entered apprenticeships into various trades after the 4 primary grades and didn’t have time to read anymore.
There were a few Jewish schools in Iasi, such as “Steaua” [the Star] on Elena Doamna St., which was a school for girls, “Junimea” on St. Lazarus St., the “Vachter” School, ORT [2]. Some of the schools were named after those who were their patrons. One of the reasons why Jewish people enlisted their children to Jewish schools was the fact that no classes were held on Saturdays. They had very good Yiddish teachers. One of them, Frenkel, later taught Yiddish at the Romanian high school. At a certain point, in the 1939-1940’s, some anti-Jewish laws were passed and Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend Romanian schools.
I went to the cheder as a child. There were no kindergartens in those days. Many of us weren’t too glad to go to the cheder, the rabbis who taught there treated us very harshly at times. The children were kept in check with the help of a cancichi [Yiddish], a sort of a whip with several strips of leather, and if you skipped the cheder or weren’t paying attention during classes you were flogged rather hard. That’s why I didn’t enjoy going to the cheder.
My wife has a beautiful story about one of her neighbors in Targu Cucului. She lived on the other side of the fence where her family lived. She had more room in the house and kept tenants. And when she accepted a tenant she explained to him what he rented. In fact, she rented him the room. The cellar was over at her neighbor’s, they could store food there if they wanted. The clothes were hung to dry across the street, near the Zvolover synagogue. There was a large courtyard there with many trees and if the tenant wanted to hang his clothes to dry, he would tie clotheslines between trees and that’s how clothes were dried. If they wanted water, there was another neighbor named Bodler who made casks and barrels. The neighbor would tell the tenant: ‘bam Bodler nemt’m voser, bam Zvolover hengt’m greit, bam Suhn fun a bai iz du der keiler’ [Yiddish: you can take water from Bodler, hang your clothes to dry at Zvolover, the cellar is over at Suhn’s]. That’s how she rented rooms, comfort 1. As for the toilet, it was all the way in the courtyard, a hole in the ground covered by wooden planks and a roof. Basically, these were the living conditions in those days.
Sometimes, our parents went to the Yiddish theatre. When summer came, it was a joy to go to the Pomul Verde or even on Rufeni St. where there was another Yiddish theatre. Our parents would sometimes go to the public park, but this happened very seldom. We spent time sitting with our neighbors in front of the house, we bought and ate sunflower or pumpkin seeds.